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Twitchell, George

Published:

George Twitchell was convicted in February 1982 of manslaughter and robbery and received a sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment.

The CCRC inherited an application for review of the conviction from the Home Office in March 1997.

Mr Twitchell had made two statements to police admitting his part in the robbery and two police officers had stated that they had seen Mr Twitchell in a getaway car at the scene of the robbery.

Mr Twitchell alleged the first confession was signed by him after he had been subjected to torture and the second had been fabricated by police officers and was only signed by him out of fear.

During review, the CCRC considered that the Court of Appeal later quashed a number of convictions involving officers of the West Midlands Police Serious Crime Squad, expressing serious concern at the credibility their evidence.

Many of the officers in Mr Twitchell’s case were subsequently shown to have fabricated confessions or other evidence in a number of these cases.

In addition, an expert report provided further support to Mr Twitchell’s assertion that he was not the author of the confession statements. The report drew particular attention to the absence of any questioning as to the details of the robbery and shooting to which Mr Twitchell was apparently confessing.

The CCRC referred the conviction in January 1998.

The Court of Appeal quashed the conviction in October 1999.